The “AVANZA-S” project achieves new milestones in the research of healthier foods and advanced packaging

The Centre for Industrial and Technology Development (CDTI) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy has reviewed and certifiedthe third year of the R&D project “Research and experimental development of new healthy food products and advanced packaging solutions” (AVANZA-S).

The project was selected and funded by CDTI in the frame of the CIEN Strategic Program for National Business Research Consortiums, whose main objective is to fund large experimental development projects in key strategic areas of international relevance.

With an investment of over 7 million euro, the AVANZA-S project aims to research on new food ingredients and formulations and on new systems and materials for advanced food packaging that permit to develop new healthy and multifunctional meat products meeting the demands of consumers and public authorities regarding health and sustainability.

The initiative, that started the 1st September 2015 and will end by August 2019, is formed by a national consortium with seven business partners, in which some of the most important agri-food, ingredients and packaging companies of our country are present: UVE, S.A. (UVESA, consortium leader), ELPOZO ALIMENTACIÓN, S.A., BTSA Biotecnologías Aplicadas, MONTELOEDER S.L., NUREL S.A, SP GROUP and BANDESUR ALCALÁ S.A. The project also counts with the participation of 11 public research groups belonging to several Spanish universities and to CSIC, the Spanish National Research Council.

In this project, MONTELOEDER is working in the development of pant-based functional ingredients for the food industry, including food supplements and nutricosmetics. And during this third year, we have successfully completed an intervention study, in collaboration with UMH (Miguel Hernandez University), in which a mixture hibiscus and lemon verbena extract (Metabolaid®) has proven to help individuals with Prehypertension or Stage 1 of Hypertension to reduce their blood pressure levels. Individuals taking this ingredient for 6 weeks presented a significant improvement in managing their blood pressure, with noticeable results as early as 2 weeks after consumption. Both systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) improved significantly, and the results remained significant throughout the whole duration of the study.